On December 3, 2014, a new law requiring that the presence of, and maintenance of, residential sprinkler systems be disclosed on all residential leases in New York. The text of the new law appears at the end of this article and can be found in Real Property Law §231-A.

Section 1 of the law requires every residential lease to contain a “conspicuous notice in bold face type as to the existence or non-existence of a maintained and operative sprinkler system in the leased premises.” Section 3 of the law further requires that “if there is a maintained and operative sprinkler system in the leased premises, the residential lease agreement shall provide further notice as to the last date of maintenance and inspection.” Since there is no exception for proprietary leases in a cooperative, they, too, fall under the requirement.

At the very least, every residential lease must contain a statement in conspicuous boldface type that says:

The leased premises (choose one of the following) is/is not serviced by a maintained and operative sprinkler system that was last maintained on __/__/__ and was last inspected on __/__/__.

There is no penalty provision contained in the law, so until there is a violation, the effect of noncompliance is unknown.